CNN's Don Lemon: Media must not 'pretend' both sides are equal
CNN host Don Lemon said the media shouldn't pretend both sides of political aisle are equal in their reporting because Democrats are fighting for democracy while Republicans are misleading the country.
CNN primetime host Don Lemon demanded journalists not give "both sides" of the political aisle equal footing in their reporting, because Republicans are "misleading" the country while Democrats are "standing up for democracy."
Appearing on "New Day" Wednesday morning, Lemon praised how journalism has drastically changed in the past several decades, to where he can now give his opinion while reporting because he hosts a cable news show.
"We talked about the role of journalists in the society, and I had to inform them that we no longer live in a Walter Cronkite society," he began. Lemon called the freedom to "state [his] truth" and "stand up for what is right," as a journalist on television, "imperative."
CNN host Don Lemon says journalists cannot "pretend" both sides are equal in reporting on Republicans and Democrats.
After acknowledging reporters still must be "factual," Lemon urged his fellow journalists to not portray Republicans and Democrats as equal.
"We cannot have a false sense of equivalency about what is happening when it comes to politics in our country. There is one party, right now, that is not operating in fact. That has been misleading the American people and that is the Republican Party, sadly, which I used to be a member of the Republican Party, years ago," Lemon stated.
Denying he was a member of any party currently, the CNN host again pushed for his peers to report in a biased way against Republicans, to defend "democracy."
"[W]e cannot pretend as journalists, that it is equal. It is not," he said.
CNN's Don Lemon speaks at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics in a program titled "Race, Media and Politics" on Feb. 22, 2019. (Paul Marotta/Getty Images)
"[W]hat the Republican Party is doing now and not standing up for our democracy and being quiet, that is very dangerous… we cannot fight all of these things and make a better world and do what [Former Treasury Secretary] Larry Summers told me last night about getting our economy together if we don't have a functioning democracy. So we as journalists need to stand up for that and not pretend it is — that we can both sides it. This is not a both sides [issue]," he scolded.
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A Pew survey published this week found that a majority of journalists, 55%, reject the idea that both sides "always deserve equal coverage."
At the same time, 82% of respondents said the press should keep their personal views out of their reporting, but only 55% told Pew that they think that journalists are succeeding at this goal.
Lemon has frequently asserted that he is "not a political person" while attacking Republicans and praising Democrats.